


Figure it out

by paleredheadinascifi



Category: Schitt's Creek
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Communication, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Episode: s04e07 The Barbecue, Fluff and Angst, It's mostly just boys talkin', M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-03
Updated: 2020-02-03
Packaged: 2021-02-27 21:13:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,379
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22542322
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/paleredheadinascifi/pseuds/paleredheadinascifi
Summary: Instead of waiting a week, David shows up at Patrick's front door the night of The Barbecue.
Relationships: Patrick Brewer/David Rose
Comments: 18
Kudos: 300





	Figure it out

He knocks on the door again, this is thrice now, and he’s still standing in front of Ray’s front door at 3am and it’s _cold_. He knows Patrick is home, his car is in the driveway and the lights were off at the store on the way over. It seems by some kind of miracle that Ray isn’t home, but that doesn’t matter much if Patrick doesn’t answer the goddamn door.

With a dramatic sigh, he pulls out his phone, ignoring the slew of apology texts from Patrick to click the call button. He picks it up on the first ring.

“David?”

“Yeah, hi. Could you open the front door please?”

There’s a bunch of shuffling and a bang that David can hear both through the phone and from inside the house. “Yes. Yes, sorry. I’m coming,” he confirms just a few seconds before the front door swings open to reveal a rather worse for wear Patrick. David knows he likely doesn’t look much better himself.

He has the red, puffy eyes to match the ones David has been sporting all night and his hair is surprisingly messy considering its short length. He stares at David, probably also cataloguing his uncharacteristically chaotic look, and it only seems to make him sadder.

“You’re…are you…? Hi,” Patrick stutters. 

“Hi. Can I come in? It’s cold.”

“Yes, of course, yes. Sorry. Come in.”

“Ray’s out?” David asks, surveying the living room for signs of the overly zealous businessman.

“He is, yeah. Presenting at a storage conference in Elm Valley,” Patrick nods.

“Oh, good for him.”

“Yeah.”

“I’m not interrupting then?” David tries to ask casually.

“No,” Patrick confirms quickly. “No. If you’re talking about Rachel, I spoke to her at the motel. She’s not…in the picture, David. She hasn’t been for months. Since before I moved, before I met you.”

“Right, so you said.”

“Did you -- I can…I will tell you whatever you want to know,” Patrick says earnestly, eyes wide with sincerity and fear.

David bites his bottom lip nervously.

“You called off the engagement?”

“Yes.”

“When?”

“December. Just before Christmas.”

“And you didn’t tell her why? She doesn’t know?”

“She knows now. I told her.”

David nods slowly, processing Patrick’s words against all the worst case scenarios he’d been prepared for.

“I told her I’m gay, and that I’m sorry for…well, all of it. I told her that I did love her, just not…how I should have. That I didn’t know how it was supposed to feel until I met you. I told her about you. About how scared I am I might have just ruined the best thing that’s ever happened to me. I told her all the things I should have told you both months ago. David, I’m sorry that I didn’t.”

It’s not the worst case scenario at all, not even close. It’s maybe one of the best case scenarios, which is infuriating, because David knew it would be. He knew that he trusted Patrick, and that the evening he’d spent sulking and seething came back to David’s past more than anything else. Patrick is different. David forgot that for a second, and it’s so wonderfully infuriating to be wrong.

“Okay,” David says, quiet but sure.

“…Okay,” Patrick repeats cautiously.

“I’m proud of you for telling her,” David adds softly.

“Oh. Thanks.”

He’s surprised that David’s being nice to him. _Damn it._

“I, um, I’m sorry as well,” David tries.

“David…”

“No, let me finish,” David cuts him off. “You’re different. From the others. You’ve always been different…better. I should’ve trusted you. I should trust you. No, okay what I’m trying to say is that I _do_ trust you. And if you’re telling me that I have nothing to worry about, then I want to believe you. I’m…I believe you.”

Patrick looks completely bewildered, he opens and closes his mouth a handful of times before taking a small step closer to David.

“David, I promise you, you have nothing to worry about. I mean it when I said that you… that what we have, makes me feel right. I’ll do whatever it takes to earn your trust. To be deserving of it. And if you still need time, I can stop calling and texting. I can give you time.”

“No, I don’t need time. I kind of just need, um…” He can’t bring himself to say it, so instead he walks a few steps forward directly into Patrick’s space and buries his face in Patrick’s neck.

“Oh,” Patrick says softly, and instantly brings his arms up to hold David tight against him. David brings his own arms up from where they’re hanging limp at his sides to wrap around Patrick’s waist, squeezing as hard as he can. “I’m sorry,” Patrick whispers into his hair, “I’m so sorry.”

David just holds on tighter.

They stand there, pressed together, for who knows how long. Whispering apologies and promises into each others skin.

“Come lie down with me?” Patrick kisses into David’s shoulder.

David nods against his neck, takes a deep breath – _everything smells like_ _Patrick_ – and steps out of Patrick’s arms to look him in the eye for the first time in what feels like days. Patrick holds out his hand, and David’s quick to take it.

Neither of them bother to turn any lights on in the bedroom as they both head straight for the bed, hands clasped firmly together. They climb into Patrick’s too-small-in-David’s-opinion bed and let their bodies find each other like they always do.

Patrick is still tense, David can feel it where they’re pressed against each other. He pulls back from Patrick’s tight embrace, lifting his head off his chest to look at his face. He finds fresh tears pooling up in his eyes, some already drying on his cheeks.

“It’s okay,” David soothes, wiping away a fallen tear. “We’re going to be okay.”

“I hurt you,” Patrick whispers into the dark room. “I thought I’d lost you.”

David leans up and presses a hard kiss to Patrick’s forehead. “You haven’t, I’m right here. Please don’t keep torturing yourself.”

Patrick lets out a shaky breath. “This is all I wanted,” he admits. “I was lying here, trying to figure out how to fix this, and all I wanted in the world was to hold you like this, like that would somehow make it all better.”

David tilts his head at him curiously, not quite following what he was trying to say.

“I feel… _god,_ David, I feel whole again with you here. I shouldn’t - - _I hurt you_. I hurt you and now you’re letting me hold you. You’re giving me the only thing in the world I want, and I don’t deserve it, I don’t. I hurt you, David. I promised you I wouldn’t but I did,” he confesses, all of it pouring out of him at once.

David runs his hands over whatever parts of Patrick he can reach, reminding him he’s _here_ and they’re okay. There’s still things he needs to say, though, and if he doesn’t say them now he knows he probably never will.

“I don’t - - what happened today…just promise me it won’t happen again, that’s all I need from you,” David explains quietly. “I need you to tell me things, Patrick, even if they might hurt me. I need to know that you will come to me with the good and the bad and the hard and the scary. I do trust you, as terrifying as that is, I do. And you’ll probably hurt me again, and I’ll definitely hurt you a few times too, but I think…whatever it is, I think maybe we can figure it out?”

“I promise you that, David,” Patrick nods. He cups David’s jaw and brings their mouths together for the first time in at least 12 hours – David takes a mental note that it’s far too much time and they should never do that again. “I want to always figure it out with you,” Patrick whispers into the space between them. He claims David’s mouth like he needs to kiss him more than he needs to breathe. As he rolls them over and grinds David into the mattress, David thinks maybe he does too.

**Author's Note:**

> I don't really know why I wrote this, but I did, and so I figured I might as well post it. 
> 
> Thanks for reading, kind stranger ✨


End file.
